Ezekiel 28 & 29

A Prophecy Against the King of Tyre

28 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, say to the ruler* of Tyre**, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

* נָגִד nagid (naw-gheed’) a commander (as occupying the front), either civil, military or religious.

**H6864 צֹר tsor (tsore) n-m. – rooted in H6696 צוּר tsuwr (tsoor) v. adversary, assault, beset, besiege, bind (up), cast, distress, fashion, fortify, inclose, lay siege, put up in bags.

~Tyre (Arabic: صور‎ Ṣūr) is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities in the world and regarded as the birth place of the Pheonix. The historian Ernest Renan noted: “One can call Tyre a city of ruins, built out of ruins.” Today Tyre is the fifth largest city in Lebanon after Beirut, Tripoli, Aley and Sidon. The present city of Tyre covers a large part of the original island and has expanded onto and covers most of the causeway built by Alexander the Great in 332 BCE. The Greek historian Eusebius recorded as the common myth that the deity Melqart built the city as a favor to the mermaid Tyros and named it after her.

Melqart was typically depicted as a bearded figure, dressed only in a rounded hat and loincloth. Reflecting his dual role as both protector of the world and ruler of the underworld, he was often shown holding an Egyptian ankh or lotus flower as a symbol of life and a fenestrated axe as a symbol of death. Often titled the “Lord of Tyre” (Ba‘al Ṣūr), he was also known as the Son of Baal or El (the Ruler of the Universe), King of the Underworld. Melqart was associated with other pantheons and often venerated accordingly. Most notably, he was identified with the Greek Herakles (Hercules) since at least the sixth century BCE, and eventually became interchangeable with his Greek counterpart. Make no mistake the King of Tyre is Satan!

“‘In the pride of your heart you say, “I am a god; I sit on the throne of a god
    in the heart of the seas.”

~Isaiah 14:12-14 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”

But you are a mere mortal and not a god, though you think you are as wise as a god.
³ Are you wiser than Daniel? Is no secret hidden from you?
⁴ By your wisdom and understanding you have gained wealth for yourself
and amassed gold and silver in your treasuries.

⁵ By your great skill in trading you have increased your wealth,
and because of your wealth your heart has grown proud.

~ Matthew 4:8-9 “Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.”

⁶ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “‘Because you think you are wise,
    as wise as a god,
⁷ I am going to bring foreigners against you, the most ruthless of nations;
they will draw their swords against your beauty and wisdom and pierce your shining splendor.

~ In 586 BCE, Nebuchadnezzar II started a siege of Tyre in that went on for thirteen years to no avail. Later, the Achaemenid Empire of the Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered the city in 539 B.C.

⁸ They will bring you down to the pit, and you will die a violent death in the heart of the seas.

~ Angered by this rejection and the city’s loyalty to Darius, Alexander the Great started the Siege of Tyre despite its reputation as being impregnable. Altogether some eight thousand Tyrians were reportedly killed during the siege, and approximately 30,000 citizens were sold into slavery, while Alexander’s troops suffered only about four hundred casualties.

⁹ Will you then say, “I am a god,” in the presence of those who kill you?
You will be but a mortal, not a god, in the hands of those who slay you.

¹⁰ You will die the death of the uncircumcised at the hands of foreigners.

I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”

¹¹ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹² “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
¹³ You were in Eden, the garden of God; very precious stone adorned you:
    carnelian, chrysolite and emerald, topaz, onyx and jasper, lapis lazuli, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold;
    on the day you were created they were prepared.
¹⁴ You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you.
You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones.

¹⁵ You were blameless in your ways from the day you were created
    till wickedness was found in you. Through your widespread trade
    you were filled with violence, and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones.

¹⁷ Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom
    because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.

¹⁸ By your many sins and dishonest trade you have desecrated your sanctuaries.
So I made a fire come out from you, and it consumed you, and I reduced you to ashes on the ground in the sight of all who were watching.

¹⁹ All the nations who knew you are appalled at you; you have come to a horrible end
    and will be no more.’”

~ Revelation 20:13-14 “And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.”

A Prophecy Against Sidon

²⁰ The word of the Lord came to me: ²¹ “Son of man, set your face against Sidon; prophesy against her ²² and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

~Sidon, known locally as Sayda or Saida (Arabic: صيدا‎), meaning ‘fishery’ or ‘fishing town’, is the third-largest city in Lebanon. In the Book of Genesis, Sidon was the first-born son of Canaan, who was a son of Ham, thereby making Sidon a great-grandson of Noah. Sidon, like Tyre, largest and most important enterprise in the Phoenician era, was conducted on a vast scale, was the production of purple dye. The small shell of the Murex trunculus was broken in order to extract the pigment that was so rare and it became the mark of royalty.

“‘I am against you, Sidon, and among you I will display my glory.
You will know that I am the Lord, when I inflict punishment on you
    and within you am proved to be holy.

²³ I will send a plague upon you and make blood flow in your streets.
The slain will fall within you, with the sword against you on every side.
Then you will know that I am the Lord.

~Like other Phoenician city-states, Sidon suffered from a succession of conquerors, then by Alexander the Great in 333 BC.

²⁴ “‘No longer will the people of Israel have malicious neighbors who are painful briers and sharp thorns. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.

²⁵ “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: When I gather the people of Israel from the nations where they have been scattered, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of the nations. Then they will live in their own land, which I gave to my servant Jacob. 

²⁶ They will live there in safety and will build houses and plant vineyards; they will live in safety when I inflict punishment on all their neighbors who maligned them. Then they will know that I am the Lord their God.’”

Noting the current state of affairs in Lebanon/Israel, one must conclude the Palestinian state will once again fall to outsiders (or possibly the Israelis’) in order to relieve them from the oppression.

~Judges 10:12 The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, [Nephilim] did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand.

A Prophecy Against Egypt

Judgment on Pharaoh

29 In the tenth year, in the tenth month on the twelfth day, the word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. ³ Speak to him and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

“‘I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, you great monster* lying among your streams. You say, “The Nile belongs to me; I made it for myself.”

~  תַּנִּים tanniym (tan-neem’) dragon, sea monster, serpent. Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

⁴ But I will put hooks in your jaws and make the fish of your streams stick to your scales.
I will pull you out from among your streams, with all the fish sticking to your scales.

⁵ I will leave you in the desert, you and all the fish of your streams.
You will fall on the open field and not be gathered or picked up.
I will give you as food to the beasts of the earth and the birds of the sky.

~1 Samuel 17:45-47 “Then said David to the Philistine, Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee, and take thine head from thee; and I will give the carcases of the host of the Philistines this day unto the fowls of the air, and to the wild beasts of the earth; that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel. And all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.”

⁶ Then all who live in Egypt will know that I am the Lord.

“‘You have been a staff of reed (support beam) for the people of Israel. ⁷ When they grasped you with their hands (assimilated into society), you splintered (oppress) and you tore open (divide) their shoulders (lateral agreement); when they leaned (relied) on you, you broke and their backs were wrenched. (caused great despair)

⁸ “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will bring a sword against you and kill both man and beast. ⁹ Egypt will become a desolate (empty) wasteland. (drought) Then they will know that I am the Lord.

Pharaoh, (from Egyptian per ʿaa, “great house”), it was never the king’s formal title. In official documents, the full title of the Egyptian king consisted of five names, each preceded by one of the following titles: Horus, Two Ladies, Golden Horus, King of Upper and Lower Egypt, and Son of Re. The last name was given to him at birth, the others at coronation. The Egyptians believed their pharaoh to be the mediator between the gods and the world of men. After death the pharaoh became divine, identified with Osiris, the father of Horus and god of the dead, and passed on his sacred powers and position to the new pharaoh, his son. This is the same mentality that is assigned to the ‘New Years Baby’, the Greek introduced Janus the 2 faced god and thus we see the ‘Old Man’ of the prior year. As a divine ruler, the pharaoh was the preserver of the god-given order, called ma’at. He owned a large portion of Egypt’s land and directed its use, was responsible for his people’s economic and spiritual welfare, and dispensed justice to his subjects. His will was supreme, and he governed by royal decree.

Encyclopedia Britannica

“‘Because you said, “The Nile is mine; I made it,” 

(inspired by Satan, he claims to have the powers of YHVH)

¹⁰ therefore I am against you and against your streams, and I will make the land of Egypt a ruin and a desolate (drought) waste from Migdol* to Aswan**, as far as the border of Cush.

*Migdol, or migdal, is a Hebrew word (מגדּלה מגדּל, מגדּל מגדּול) which means either a tower (from its size or height), an elevated stage (a rostrum or pulpit), or a raised bed (within a river). Physically, it can mean fortified land, i.e. a walled city or castle. This specifically can be named as the Tower of Syene. {seven}In archaeology, migdol is a specific type of temple, examples of which have been discovered for instance at Hazor, Megiddo, Tel Haror, Pella and Shechem.

** Aswan is a city in the south of Egypt and is the capital of the Aswan Governorate. The Nubians also call the city Dib which means “fortress, palace” and is derived from the Old Nubian name ⲇⲡ̅ⲡⲓ. The ancient name of the city also is said to be derived from the Egyptian symbol for “trade”, or “market”. They quarried stones for the Obelisks in this region. The latitude of the city that would become Aswan – located at 24° 5′ 23″ – was an object of great interest to the ancient geographers. They believed that it was seated immediately under the tropic, and that on the day of the summer solstice, a vertical staff cast no shadow. The Dam provides the ability developed to completely control the flooding, and thus both protect and support farmland and its economically important cotton crop. With the greatly increased reservoir storage provided by the High Aswan Dam, the floods could be controlled and the water could be stored for later release over multiple years. A view from the vantage point in the middle of High Dam reveals the monument of Arab-Soviet Friendship (Lotus Flower).

¹¹ The foot of neither man nor beast will pass through it; no one will live there for forty years. 

¹² I will make the land of Egypt desolate among devastated lands, and her cities will lie desolate forty years among ruined cities. And I will disperse the Egyptians among the nations and scatter them through the countries.

¹³ “‘Yet this is what the Sovereign Lord says: At the end of forty years I will gather the Egyptians from the nations where they were scattered. ¹⁴ I will bring them back from captivity and return them to Upper Egypt, the land of their ancestry. There they will be a lowly kingdom. 

¹⁵ It will be the lowliest of kingdoms and will never again exalt itself above the other nations. I will make it so weak that it will never again rule over the nations. ¹⁶ Egypt will no longer be a source of confidence for the people of Israel but will be a reminder of their sin in turning to her for help. Then they will know that I am the Sovereign Lord.’”

Nebuchadnezzar’s Reward

¹⁷ In the twenty-seventh year, in the first month on the first day, the word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon drove his army in a hard campaign against Tyre; every head was rubbed bare and every shoulder made raw. Yet he and his army got no reward from the campaign he led against Tyre. ¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am going to give Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will carry off its wealth. He will loot and plunder the land as pay for his army. ²⁰ I have given him Egypt as a reward for his efforts because he and his army did it for me, declares the Sovereign Lord.

²¹ “On that day I will make a horn (king leader) grow for the Israelites, and I will open your mouth among them. Then they will know that I am the Lord.”